According to DEVAMM, one of the groups Ibragimoglu (30) represents, his only crime has been to openly support opposition candidate Isa Gambar and peacefully monitor the post-election situation. Ibragimoglu is now in Baku’s Bailov prison, where most of the more than 100 other opposition activists detained after the demonstrations against the October 15 elections are also being held.
“Ibragimoglu is quite an influential young religious leader who has opposed the repression of the government,” Azer Hasret, head of the Journalists’ Trade Union, told Forum 18 from Baku today. “He defends the rights not only of believers, but of all people, that’s why the government doesn’t like him”. Hasret also said that Azerbaijani authorities had tried to restrict Ibragimoglu’s activities even before the election, but had been unable to do so. “Ibragimoglu quoted the Koran as declaring that one should resist all violators of one’s rights. They used this to argue that he was inspiring street protests against the election results”.
Seymur Rashidov of DEVAMM described the court hearing at Nasimi district court in the capital Baku last night as “full of falsifications. It was over very quickly and none of the lawyers’ arguments were taken into consideration”. Rashidov also said that ten or so of Ibragimoglu’s colleagues who wished to attend the hearing were barred from doing so.
